# Modern era By [nezuko](https://paragraph.com/@nezuko-2) ยท 2023-05-29 --- The **modern era**[\[a\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_era#cite_note-1) is the period of [human history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history) that succeeds the [Middle Ages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages) (which ended around [1500](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500) AD) up to the present. This terminology is a historical [periodization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodization) that is applied primarily to [European](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Europe) and [Western history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_history). The modern era can be further divided as follows: * The [early modern period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_modern_period) lasted from c. AD 1500 to 1800 and resulted in wide-ranging intellectual, political and economic change. It brought with it the [Age of Enlightenment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment), the [Industrial Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution) and an [Age of Revolutions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Revolutions), beginning with those in [America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_War_of_Independence) and [France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution) and later spreading in other countries, partly as a result of upheavals of the [Napoleonic Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars). * The [late modern period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_modern_period) began around 1800 with the end of the political revolutions in the late 18th century and involved the transition from a [world dominated by imperial and colonial powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Imperialism) into one of nations and nationhood following the two great world wars, [World War I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I) and [World War II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II). * [Contemporary history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_history) refers to the period following the end of World War II in 1945 and continuing to the [present](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events). It is alternatively considered either a sub-period of the late modern period or a separate period beginning after the late modern period. It is history that is still within living memory, and includes the currently-ongoing [21st century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_century). [https://opensea.io/assets/0xD5c7510aad8a5E128e1B5485f720b21dc75123D9/1](https://opensea.io/assets/0xD5c7510aad8a5E128e1B5485f720b21dc75123D9/1) The modern period has been a period of significant development in the fields of [science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science), [politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics), [warfare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warfare), and [technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology). It has also been an [age of discovery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_discovery) and [globalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization). During this time, the [European powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_powers) and later their colonies, began a political, economic, and cultural [colonization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization) of the rest of the world. By the late [19th](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_era#19th_century) and early [20th century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_era#20th_century), [modernist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist) [art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art), [politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics), [science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science) and [culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture) has come to dominate not only [Western Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Europe) and [North America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America), but almost every civilized area on the globe, including [movements thought of as opposed to](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Western_sentiment) the [western world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world) and [globalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization). The modern era is closely associated with the development of [individualism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individualism), [capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism), [urbanization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization) and a belief in the positive possibilities of technological and political [progress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress). The [brutal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_era#World_War_I) [wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_era#World_War_II) and [other problems of this era](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_era#Cold_War_and_Contemporary_History), many of which come from the effects of rapid change, and the connected [loss of strength of traditional religious](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detraditionalization) and ethical norms, have led to many [reactions against modern development](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism#Criticism_of_late_modernity). [Optimism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism) and the [belief in constant progress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history) have been most recently criticized by [postmodernism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism), while the [dominance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocentrism) of Western Europe and North America over the rest of the world has been criticized by [postcolonial theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism). --- *Originally published on [nezuko](https://paragraph.com/@nezuko-2/modern-era)*